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Saturday, December 15, 2018

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge, by Lisa Jensen

Lucie is a poor peasant girl, hired as a chambermaid in the
chateau of Jean-Loup.He is a cruel and
heartless man, as epitomized by his brutal sexual assault on Lucie.Pregnant and devastated, Lucie flees to the
forest where she is cared for by an old woman who assures her that Jean-Loup’s
reckoning is near.The old woman
subsequently subjects Jean-Loup to several tests which he fails and she casts a
spell which converts him into a horrible beast.Gleeful and vengeful, Lucie begs to be able to witness his humiliation and is transformed into a candlestick holder.Years
of darkness fall on the chateau until an old man stumbles on the castle and
begs for shelter.While there, he asks
for his host to give him a rose for his daughter. The die is cast!

And, while you think you know the rest of the story, this is
where it grows interesting.What if the
Beast were a true gentleman (you’ve seen the Disney version, so don’t tell me
that you can’t imagine it!)?And what if
the man he was before was in fact the beastly cursed one?What would rescuing the man from the Beast actually achieve and what
would be lost?

In this reimagining of the classic tale, Jensen poses these
questions, keeping the original story intact, but addressing matters
so blithely skipped over in the original.The story is a bit more mature than a YA fantasy usually is, but still a read that younger readers can enjoy.For me, it was a bit hard to drive Disney’s version out of my head at first and Rose is a poor
replacement for Belle (whose role is actually played here by Lucie the
candlestick – a most non-Jerry Orbach character if there ever was one!).The pacing is decent, although the
various plot twists towards the end get dizzying and some elements (like Rose’s
conniving family) are wasted.

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About Me

Would You Like Me To Review Your Book?

I review books written for teens. My primary interests are interpersonal relations and coming of age stories (which overwhelmingly are targeted at teenage girls for whatever reason!). I look for originality, readability, humor, and poignancy. I have a soft spot for a book that makes me cry.